SUB-FOSSIL REMAINS FROM KING ISLAND. 
go out in the day in search of food and return to their huts at 
night isa mystery. This means not only that he had persuaded 
the animals to abandon their burrowing habits, but, what is more 
remarkable still, he had changed a nocturnal into a diurnal animal. 
The domestication story must, we fear, be regarded as a myth. It 
is true that Flinders remarks on the fact that on Clarke Island he 
saw Wombats feeding during the day time. On the mainland the 
animal is also sometimes seen during the day, but it is essentially 
nocturnal in its habits, and Sir Everard Home states, in regard to 
one taken alive from King Island to London, that it was quiet 
during the day and active at night. 
There is no doubt that Emus and Wombats were plentiful at 
the time of Péron’s visit, and that Péron actually saw them. 
There is avery curious discrepancy between two accounts that are 
published dealing with their size. Péron makes the following 
statement* :—“ |e puissant Casoar, haut de 16 4 22 décimétres 
(5 47 pieds),” and, in the margin opposite this, reference is made 
to plate 66. On the other hand, in the publication by Messrs. 
Milne Edwards and Oustalet, to which we have already referred, 
the following question put to, and the answer to it made by, 
Cowper, are given :— 
“6. Quelle est la hauteur la plus grande a laquelle il 
parvient ? 
A Tile King, a peu prés 4 pieds $, plus petit qu’a Sydney.” 
The plate referred to contains the figures of adult and young 
birds, and bears the following legend: —‘‘ Nouvelle-Hollande— 
ile des kanguroos.  Casoar de Ja N“"* Hollande (Casuarius Nove 
Hollandie-Lath.)” It will be noted that in the letterpress the 
name ile Decrés is used, and on the plate the name ile des 
Kanguroos. It is evident that Péron imagined that the island and 
the mainland forms of Emu were the same, and that he made very 
little effort to capture them on the islands—indeed, he says, 
speaking of Kangaroo Island, “Nous mimes peu de soin a les 
chasser, nous ne pimes nous en procurer que trois individus 
vivans.”{ He makes no remarks whatever about the size of the 
Kangaroo Island specimens. 
It is well known now that there are three authentic specimens 
of D. peront in existence§{—a mounted skin and skeleton in Paris and 
* “Voyage de découvertes, &c.,” vol. ii., p. 14 
+ ‘‘Note sur l’emeu noir, &c., Bull. du Muséum d’hist. nat.,”’ 1899, p. 206. 
t Loe. cit., p. 78, vol. ii. 
§ Hon. Walter Rothschild. ‘Extinct Birds.” 1907. Also Dr. H. H. Giglioli. 
‘* Nature.” April 4, 1907, p. 534. A very good account of the various specimens brought 
to Europe is given by Graham Renshaw in the ‘‘ Zoologist.” No. 741, 1903. p. 81. 
[19 J 
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